ETAN urges dropping of defamation charges
against East Timorese editor

Contact: John M. Miller +1-718-596-7668

January 26, 2009 - The East Timor and Indonesia
Action Network (ETAN) today called on Timor-Leste's
(East Timor) prosecutor-general to drop criminal defamation
charges against the local weekly Tempo Semanal and its
editor, Jose Belo.

Jose
Belo at work in the Tempo Semanal office. Photo by
Charles Scheiner/ETAN.

"Tempo Semanal and Jose Belo should not have to face charges
under this obsolete and repressive law," said John M.
Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN. "We urge the
prosecutor-general to immediately drop any charges."

In October 2008, Tempo Semanal
published an article alleging that Timor-Leste's Justice Minister
Lucia Lobato had improperly awarded government contracts
to friends and business contacts. The report cited
leaked mobile phone text messages. Lobato filed the
defamation charges in November, accusing the paper of
breaching her privacy and violating the ethical code of
journalists.

"Rather
than attack the messenger, Timor-Leste's
leadership should support freedom of expression
and encourage a dynamic, investigative media."

Belo argues that his publication wrote only about Lobato's
performance in her role as a public official, not her
private activities. "

"Information about government activities should not be
subject to defamation laws. Rather than attack the
messenger, Timor-Leste's leadership should support freedom
of expression and encourage a dynamic, investigative media,"
said Miller.

Background

The government of Timor-Leste has proposed
decriminalizing defamation under a new penal code. Although
drafted several years ago, it has not yet been enacted.

Timor-Leste's criminal defamation statutes are a leftover
from Indonesia's criminal code. Journalists and activists in
Indonesia are still charged with criminal defamation,
although the 1999 Press Law created a body to adjudicate
disputes involving the press.

Belo was notified of the defamation charges in mid-December.
On January 19, he was questioned for 3 hours by the
prosecutor's office.
Tempo
Semanal was told by the Office of the Prosecutor-General
that they would not be given copies of relevant documents
because they are confidential.

In
an interview with ABC Radio Australia,
Jose Belo, Tempo Semanal's founder, said "we don't have any
money or any resources. So we can't fight a person who has
influence [and] who has money. So I presume it is very, very
difficult to win this case in the court."

If convicted, Belo could face fines or prison. During Indonesia's brutal, illegal 24-year
occupation of Timor-Leste, Belo was imprisoned or
arbitrarily detained many times for passing information
about human rights violations to foreign journalists and
human rights groups, for a total of about three years. It is
ironic that in democratic, independent Timor-Leste he could
face double that time for exposing government corruption.

The Office of the Prosecutor General,
Longuinhos Monteiro, has
reportedly told Belo that the truth of what he published in
his newspaper is not relevant to the charges against him and
will not be admissible in court. This contradicts legal precedent set in April 2006, when the same prosecutor, charged Yayasan HAK (a human rights NGO) with defamation.
accusing him of abuse of power by interfering with the
justice process in a case where HAK served as the defense
attorney. In that case, a judge ruled that the defamation
charges could not be adjudicated until the original case was
resolved. That case was brought to trial. Under that
precedent, the allegations of corruption against the
Minister of Justice should be tried before the defamation
case, but the prosecutor has not begun a legal case against
her.

ETAN advocates for democracy, justice and
human rights for East Timor and Indonesia. For more
information, see www.etan.org.
In April 2006, ETAN urged
then-President Xanana Gusmao to veto the criminal defamation
provisions of the proposed penal code.